Federated voice biometric database to secure and authenticate e-money

Posted on 06 December 2010.

Voice Commerce launched KYC Secure, a federated database developed to secure and authenticate a consumer’s identity over their mobile phone. The first regulated mobile identity database of its kind, KYC Secure has been designed to support a global standard for e-money and mobile payment account opening procedures.

It provides any company or financial institution with the means to verify a customer’s identity based on their unique biometric Voice Signature in order to significantly reduce exposure to online, credit and identity fraud.

KYC Secure brings together VoicePay and Cashflows payment systems and ensures Voice Signatures are verified before being stored in the secure VoiceTransact database. A number of organizations are already supporting this federated initiative including Experian which is already providing Voice Commerce with its credit information services and 192business who provide online identity verification solutions to Voice Commerce to verify the identities behind the Voice Signatures.

Organizations are increasingly required to verify an individual’s identity, whether in situations where there is an existing customer relationship or where a new relationship is being established. At the same time, consumers are increasingly aware of the threats posed to their identities and want to ensure that their financial information is secure.

KYC Secure takes all these needs into account, providing consumer protection in the emerging mobile and e-money transactions area by embedding robust security from the onset and guaranteeing transactions are undertaken only with consumers consent. It also enables organizations to easily verify customers’ and potential customers’ identities through their mobile phone.

In practice KYC Secure allows an organization requesting an identity check from a potential customer to simply ask for the individual’s mobile phone number which they enter into the KYC Secure website. The customer who, previously registered to use the service, receives a mobile phone call, where they are asked to identify themselves using their unique biometric Voice Signature.

If the applicant is confirmed using the two factor authentication they are required to pass a four digit number provided to them back to the organization. This is then entered into the KYC Secure system by the organization and serves to triangulate and time stamp that person at a specific location. Additional authenticated information can also be requested before confirmation of the individual’s identity is achieved.

via net-security.org